By late 1939, comic book sales were dominated by Superman and Batman — both characters which happened to be owned by National Comics. What was a rival comic publisher to do? While many publishers decided to piggy-back off of the continuous popularity of Superman, there were a few who decided to stick with their particular characters. Timely Comics was one of those publishers. True, their magazine didn’t outsell Superman or Batman, but it was enough to attract a group of readers large enough to make a name for Timely Comics.